5 Reasons to Celebrate International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8. Here are 11 reasons why this day continues to be an important, positive event that’s deserving of the support of every thinking individual.

Great art by women is great art, period. To settle any possible doubt on that score, pick a book, any book, from our Women’s Day Reading List.

Women face forms of adversity unique to them as a class. An easy way to learn about these struggles if you haven’t had personal experience with them, or to feel solidarity if you have, is to watch movies like those recommended by Likewiser Sam Chapnick in her list, Brave Bold Women!

We’ve come a long way! This is a day to celebrate the progress we’ve made for gender equality since International Women’s Day first began in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding voting rights and fair wages.

But this year’s theme, #BalanceforBetter, reminds us that representation of women in arenas from the board room to politics is still a work in progress.

Most of us have women in our lives who are heroes; women who have earned wages, fed their families, cleaned their office buildings, broken through glass ceilings, raised children, or made life beautiful in a variety of ways. This is a day to celebrate those women, who might otherwise go completely unrecognized.

So celebrate on March 8 or any day thereafter, by acknowledging the role women have played in making your life better, learning about women, their struggles, their contributions, and their varieties, by being a friend and ally to women, by reaching out to women across the world in whatever way you can and giving them a boost, by tagging your Women’s Day posts #BalanceforBetter. Share in the comments below if you have more ideas on how to move toward gender equality. Because when women thrive, we all thrive. Happy International Women’s Day!

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We’re looking for a Seattleite willing to throw life into the wind and live on the recommendations of their friends and the Likewise community on a houseboat for two weeks. We’ll even give you $10,000 to do it.